[lbo-talk] Herodotus and Terrorism

[michael perelman]

Now that the US is tightening the financial noose around Assange, the 
New York Times has an editorial calling for the replacement of cash with 
electronic money.  Kurke, Leslie. 1999. Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: 
The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece (Princeton: Princeton 
University Press) describes how Herodotus saw money as a way to 
undermine hierarchies.  Finally, the military agrees.

Lipow, Jonathan. 2010. "Turn In Your Bin Ladens." New York Times (18 
December): p. A 23.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/opinion/18lipow.html?ref=opinion

"Nowadays, terrorist networks have become important users of cash. No 
organization understands this better than the United States military. 
During the early years of coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, 
American forces distributed cash liberally. From 2003 and 2008, about 
$19 billion in physical money was handed out to Iraqi suppliers and 
contractors."

"But the military has gradually realized that the anonymity of cash 
makes it easy for terrorists and insurgents to smuggle in money and make 
purchases without a trace. That’s why for the past few years the 
military has been striving to replace its cash transactions with 
electronic fund transfers and debit card payments in the hopes of 
achieving a “cashless battlefield,” in the words of Peter Kunkel, a 
former assistant secretary of the Army."

Soon the government will be able to tell when a 7 year old buys some 
bubble gum.
-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

mperelman at csuchico.edu

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com